Transformers: Ghosts

After about two months of preparing and a week of arguing with GIMP on the special effects, here's the first part of my photocomic. The prologue is basically to bring you up to speed on the status quo as the story begins. The last couple of panels suffer for me not having found anything to use as a decent briefing room set up. Hopefully I'll have some actual sets for the rest of the updates.

WOW, off to a great start with this! Like the background plates with the characters in the foreground. One way you can add to the "realism" is to add cast shadows for the characters when they are in really bright shots, like the one with BumbleBee. You scaled the class room shot with Kara REALLY well. Look forward to the next installment!

Great start! I'm a big fan of the WFC toys and I've always wanted to do a Transformers, G.I. Joe crossover comic. Can't wait to see where this goes. The story set up is nice and the photos themselves look good. Keep it coming!

WOW, off to a great start with this! Like the background plates with the characters in the foreground. One way you can add to the "realism" is to add cast shadows for the characters when they are in really bright shots, like the one with BumbleBee.

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Yeah, a shadow would have really helped on that one, i'm just a bit too lazy to go back and fix it. Not sure how much I'm gonna be using the background plates in the future; they look good but are lots of effort sometimes. Still, they do seem to be working so far.

I see you're using a couple GI Joes there, looks like from the Rise of Cobra line. I remember seeing that girl Joe in stores and almost thought about getting her. Might have to do that.

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Agent Helix and Reactive Armour Duke. Got Helix while on holiday in Florida at christmas, not sure how easily you'd be able to find her outside of e-bay. Sadly GI Joe isn't very popular over here in England, Rise of Cobra was the first time figures had been in shops in years. The one upside of which is that the figures are currently quite cheap (while they last). Got Duke, Stormshadow and Cobra Commander for £2 each.

Great start! I'm a big fan of the WFC toys and I've always wanted to do a Transformers, G.I. Joe crossover comic. Can't wait to see where this goes. The story set up is nice and the photos themselves look good. Keep it coming!

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It's not really clear but these aren't GI Joe as such, it's more like NEST from the movies (and in addition to shadows, location tags might also be useful in future). Sadly neither the WfC or GI Joe figures will be reappearing soon, as I need to start introducing more of the actual cast. But we'll catch up with at least some of them as the story progresses.

I'm glad people are liking this, and I hope you enjoy what's to come. Gonna start scripting the next few updates tonight. Hopefully it won't take me another two months for the next one.

Ooo, nice plot. And great job with the Photoshop, too! Just a tip, though: Try to not use too much flash on the toys, because some plastics reflect it, and it looks a bit odd and out of place with some of the scene.

Agent Helix and Reactive Armour Duke. Got Helix while on holiday in Florida at christmas, not sure how easily you'd be able to find her outside of e-bay. Sadly GI Joe isn't very popular over here in England, Rise of Cobra was the first time figures had been in shops in years. The one upside of which is that the figures are currently quite cheap (while they last). Got Duke, Stormshadow and Cobra Commander for £2 each.

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Last time I saw Agent Helix, it was back in... at the end of July, at one of my local TRU stores. I'm fairly certain I should still be able to pick her up.

Ooo, nice plot. And great job with the Photoshop, too! Just a tip, though: Try to not use too much flash on the toys, because some plastics reflect it, and it looks a bit odd and out of place with some of the scene.

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It's not actually the flash, but the point is taken. My camera's flash is mighty strong and can bleach the image too much, so I'm trying to use natural light sources. Sometimes the sun shining through windows is a bit bright, though.

Backgrounds that aren't desks and computers really help sell a story, so nice job. I look forward to reading more.

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It certainly turned out better than I expected it too, especially with Bumblebee's slight glow being really obvious to me while putting that panel together. Sadly, trying to maintain that style that does leave me with the problem of trying to build decent sets. For example, I'm going to need a spaceship's bridge for an upcoming update. Making that is going to be awkward.

I haven't forgotten about or abandoned this but I'm having minor cash flow issues related to only working part time that means the comic is effectively on hold until I can afford what I need for the updates I have planned (none of which is massively expensive but for the moment is just that little bit beyond what I can spare). Hopefully this will resolve itself in a few weeks, but until then I can't do much if any work on the updates.

Once I get these things updates should become fairly frequent.

If anyone's wondering, those items I'm after include

a mini-tripod for my camera
a Star Trek bridge set
a collection of KO transformers (both to use as primary characters and extras, it's the easiest way to get figures without faction symbols)
a handful of Terminator: Salvation figures
some lego for building set elements with

I've got a chunk of story ready (some of it even scripted) once I can get started properly.